arXiv subjects

Antonio Clemente

Publications and source records attributed to Antonio Clemente.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Evaluation of Switching Technologies for Reflective and Transmissive RISs at Sub-THz Frequencies

For the upcoming 6G wireless networks, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces are an essential technology, enabling dynamic beamforming and signal manipulation in both reflective and transmissive modes. It is expected to utilize frequency bands in the millimeter-wave and THz, which presents unique opportunities but also significant challenges. The selection of switching technologies that can support high-frequency operation with minimal loss and high efficiency is particularly complex. In this work, we demonstrate the potential of advanced components such as Schottky diodes, memristor switches, liquid metal-based switches, phase change materials, and RF-SOI technology in RIS designs as an alternative to overcome limitations inherent in traditional technologies in D-band (110-170 GHz).

cs.ET↗

arXiv2024

Characterization of Indoor RIS-Assisted Channels at 304 GHz: Experimental Measurements, Challenges, and Future Directions

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) are expected to play a pivotal role in future indoor ultra high data rate wireless communications as well as highly accurate three-dimensional localization and sensing, mainly due to their capability to provide flexible, cost- and power-efficient coverage extension, even under blockage conditions. However, when considering beyond millimeter wave frequencies where there exists GHz-level available bandwidth, realistic models of indoor RIS-parameterized channels verified by field-trial measurements are unavailable. In this article, we first present and characterize three RIS prototypes with $100\times100$ unit cells of half-wavelength inter-cell spacing, which were optimized to offer a specific non-specular reflection with $1$-, $2$-, and $3$-bit phase quantization at $304$ GHz. The designed static RISs were considered in an indoor channel measurement campaign carried out with a $304$ GHz channel sounder. Channel measurements for two setups, one focusing on the transmitter-RIS-receiver path gain and the other on the angular spread of multipath components, are presented and compared with both state-of-the-art theoretical models as well as full-wave simulation results. The article is concluded with a list of challenges and research directions for RIS design and modeling of RIS-parameterized channels at THz frequencies.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2024

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for THz: Hardware Impairments and Switching Technologies

The demand for unprecedented performance in the upcoming 6G wireless networks is fomenting the research on THz communications empowered by Reconfigurable Inteligent Surfaces (RISs). A wide range of use cases have been proposed, most of them, assuming high-level RIS models that overlook some of the hardware impairments that this technology faces. The expectation is that the emergent reconfigurable THz technologies will eventually overcome its current limitations. This disassociation from the hardware may mask nonphysical assumptions, perceived as hardware limitations. In this paper, a top-down approach bounded by physical constraints is presented, distilling from system-level specifications, hardware requirements, and upper bounds for the RIS-aided system performance. We consider D-band indoor and outdoor scenarios where a more realistic assessment of the state-of-the-art solution can be made. The goal is to highlight the intricacies of the design procedure based on sound assumptions for the RIS performance. For a given signal range and angular coverage, we quantify the required RIS size, number of switching elements, and maximum achievable bandwidth and capacity.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2024

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for THz: Hardware Design and Signal Processing Challenges

Wireless communications in the THz frequency band is an envisioned revolutionary technology for sixth Generation (6G) networks. However, such frequencies impose certain coverage and device design challenges that need to be efficiently overcome. To this end, the development of cost- and energy-efficient approaches for scaling these networks to realistic scenarios constitute a necessity. Among the recent research trends contributing to these objectives belongs the technology of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs). In fact, several high-level descriptions of THz systems based on RISs have been populating the literature. Nevertheless, hardware implementations of those systems are still very scarce, and not at the scale intended for most envisioned THz scenarios. In this paper, we overview some of the most significant hardware design and signal processing challenges with THz RISs, and present a preliminary analysis of their impact on the overall link budget and system performance, conducted in the framework of the ongoing TERRAMETA project.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2023

Empirical Validation of the Impedance-Based RIS Channel Model in an Indoor Scattering Environment

Ensuring the precision of channel modeling plays a pivotal role in the development of wireless communication systems, and this requirement remains a persistent challenge within the realm of networks supported by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). Achieving a comprehensive and reliable understanding of channel behavior in RIS-aided networks is an ongoing and complex issue that demands further exploration. In this paper, we empirically validate a recently-proposed impedance-based RIS channel model that accounts for the mutual coupling at the antenna array and precisely models the presence of scattering objects within the environment as a discrete array of loaded dipoles. To this end, we exploit real-life channel measurements collected in an office environment to demonstrate the validity of such a model and its applicability in a practical scenario. Finally, we provide numerical results demonstrating that designing the RIS configuration based upon such model leads to superior performance as compared to reference schemes.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2023

RIS-Enabled Smart Wireless Environments: Deployment Scenarios, Network Architecture, Bandwidth and Area of Influence

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) constitute the key enabler for programmable electromagnetic propagation environments, and are lately being considered as a candidate physical-layer technology for the demanding connectivity, reliability, localization, and sustainability requirements of next generation wireless networks. In this paper, we first present the deployment scenarios for RIS-enabled smart wireless environments that have been recently designed within the ongoing European Union Horizon 2020 RISE-6G project, as well as a network architecture integrating RISs with existing standardized interfaces. We identify various RIS deployment strategies and sketch the core architectural requirements in terms of RIS control and signaling, depending on the RIS hardware architectures and respective capabilities. Furthermore, we introduce and discuss, with the aid of simulations and reflectarray measurements, two novel metrics that emerge in the context of RIS-empowered wireless systems: the RIS bandwidth and area of influence. Their extensive investigation corroborates the need for careful deployment and planning of the RIS technology in future networks.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2022

Blue Communications for Edge Computing: the Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces Opportunity

Wireless traffic is exploding, due to the myriad of new connections and the exchange of capillary data at the edge of the networks to operate real-time processing and decision making. The latter especially affects the uplink traffic, which will grow in 6G and beyond networks, calling for new optimization metrics that include energy, service delay, and electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure (EMFE). To this end, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) represent a promising solution to mitigate the EMFE, thanks to their ability of shaping and manipulating the impinging electromagnetic waves. In line with this vision, this paper proposes an online adaptive method to mitigate the EMFE under end-to-end delay constraints of a computation offloading service, in the context of RIS and multi-access edge computing (MEC)-aided wireless networks. The goal is to minimize the long-term average of the EMF human exposure under such constraints, investigating the advantages of RISs towards blue (i.e. low EMFE) communications. A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is investigated as part of the visions towards 6G. Focusing on a typical scenario of computation offloading, the method jointly and adaptively optimizes user precoding, transmit power, RIS reflectivity parameters, and receiver combiner, with theoretical guarantees on the desired long-term performance. Besides the theoretical results, numerical simulations assess the performance of the proposed algorithm, when exploiting accurate antenna patterns, thus showing the advantage of the RIS and that of our method, compared to benchmark solutions.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2021

Reconfigurable, Intelligent, and SustainableWireless Environments for 6G Smart Connectivity

Various visions on the forthcoming sixth Generation (6G) networks point towards flexible connect-and-compute technologies to support future innovative services and the corresponding use cases. 6G should be capable to accommodate ever-evolving and heterogeneous applications, future regulations, and diverse user-, service-, and location-based requirements. A key element towards building smart and energy sustainable wireless systems beyond 5G is the Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS), which offers programmable control and shaping of the wireless propagation environment. Capitalizing on this technology potential, in this article we introduce two new concepts: i) wireless environment as a service, which leverages a novel RIS-empowered networking paradigm to trade off diverse, and usually conflicting, connectivity objectives; and ii) performance-boosted areas enabled by RIS-based connectivity, representing competing service provisioning areas that are highly spatially and temporally focused. We discuss the key technological enablers and research challenges with the proposed networking paradigm, and highlight the potential profound role of RISs in the recent Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2020

Radio Localization and Mapping with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

5G radio at millimeter wave (mmWave) and beyond 5G concepts at 0.1-1 THz can exploit angle and delay measurements for localization, by the virtue of increased bandwidth and large antenna arrays but are limited in terms of blockage caused by obstacles. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are seen as a transformative technology that can control the physical propagation environment in which they are embedded by passively reflecting EM waves in preferred directions. Whereas such RISs have been mainly intended for communication purposes, RISs can have great benefits in terms of performance, energy consumption, and cost for localization and mapping. These benefits as well as associated challenges are the main topics of this paper.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2019

Automatic Mapping of the Indoor World with Personal Radars

Digital maps will revolutionize our experience of perceiving and navigating indoor environments. While today we rely only on the representation of the outdoors, the mapping of indoors is mainly a part of the traditional SLAM problem where robots discover the surrounding and perform self-localization. Nonetheless, robot deployment prevents from a large diffusion and fast mapping of indoors and, further, they are usually equipped with laser and vision technology that fail in scarce visibility conditions. To this end, a possible solution is to turn future personal devices into personal radars as a milestone towards the automatic generation of indoor maps using massive array technology at millimeter-waves, already in place for communications. In this application-oriented paper, we will describe the main achievements attained so far to develop the personal radar concept, using ad-hoc collected experimental data, and by discussing possible future directions of investigation.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

Performance and Impairment Modelling for Hardware Components in Millimetre-wave Transceivers

This invited paper details some of the hardware modelling and impairment analysis carried out in the EU mmMAGIC project. The modelling work includes handset and Access Point antenna arrays, where specific millimeter-wave challenges are addressed. In power amplifier related analysis, statistical and behavioural modelling approaches are discussed. Phase Noise, regarded as a main impairment in millimeter-wave, is captured under two models and some analysis into to the impact of phase noise is also provided.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2017

Where, When, and How mmWave is Used in 5G and Beyon

Wireless engineers and business planners commonly raise the question on where, when, and how millimeter-wave (mmWave) will be used in 5G and beyond. Since the next generation network is not just a new radio access standard, but instead an integration of networks for vertical markets with diverse applications, answers to the question depend on scenarios and use cases to be deployed. This paper gives four 5G mmWave deployment examples and describes in chronological order the scenarios and use cases of their probable deployment, including expected system architectures and hardware prototypes. The paper starts with 28 GHz outdoor backhauling for fixed wireless access and moving hotspots, which will be demonstrated at the PyeongChang winter Olympic games in 2018. The second deployment example is a 60 GHz unlicensed indoor access system at the Tokyo-Narita airport, which is combined with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) to enable ultra-high speed content download with low latency. The third example is mmWave mesh network to be used as a micro Radio Access Network (μ-RAN), for cost-effective backhauling of small-cell Base Stations (BSs) in dense urban scenarios. The last example is mmWave based Vehicular-to-Vehicular (V2V) and Vehicular-to-Everything (V2X) communications system, which enables automated driving by exchanging High Definition (HD) dynamic map information between cars and Roadside Units (RSUs). For 5G and beyond, mmWave and MEC will play important roles for a diverse set of applications that require both ultra-high data rate and low latency communications.

cs.NI↗